


Home, Sweet Home

by RizaHawkeyePierce



Series: Magical Youths' Guide to Growing Up [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abuse, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Recreational Drug Use, Teenage Rebellion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26377174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RizaHawkeyePierce/pseuds/RizaHawkeyePierce
Summary: Sirius is home for the summer, and it's not going well.
Relationships: James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter
Series: Magical Youths' Guide to Growing Up [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916311
Kudos: 21
Collections: Marauders





	1. Chapter 1

Sirius Black, sixteen, with long hair and dark eyes, was aware of how handsome girls found him. He stood, shirtless, admiring the new tattoo on his shoulder in the mirror. He’d had it done in a Muggle shop and was planning to enchant the ink to make it change color and move around, but he’d have to wait until it healed first. It was in the shape of the Gryffindor lion, roaring defiance.

It was the summer holidays, and though he’d told his parents he much preferred to stay at school during holidays, his parents had told him in no uncertain terms that he would be expected back at the house. So he’d gotten the new tattoo on the way home, ducking away from Regulus, telling him to tell their parents he’d be home in a few hours for a stuffy welcome-home dinner as usual. His father’s dinner speeches and his mother’s simpering agreement had enraged him enough that he snuck out after dinner to a Muggle dancing club. A pretty girl had asked him to dance and given him a couple pills that made him feel a kind of angry euphoria, and he’d spent most of the night kissing her on the dance floor, until he let slip that he was sixteen. She seemed to be nervous about that for some reason, and she made an excuse and left the club. Furious, he shattered some Muggle’s flowerpots and took a bicycle for a joyride before crashing it into a river and leaving it there. He then went home, slept for three hours, and woke up, full of energy and probably still high. He peered at his face in the mirror. His pupils were enormous, and he was breathing fast.

He should probably go pay for the bicycle and the flowerpots. He should probably feel bad about the bicycle and flowerpots, but it was hard to feel anything under the soaring, rushing sensation.

He definitely shouldn’t let his parents see him in this state. Maybe he should go out again, to burn off some excess energy.

He pulled on a T-shirt and jeans, flexing in the mirror and arranging his hair. He found his trainers, which took some time, since one was under the bed and one was in the closet, pulled them on and left his room without making sure the coast was clear. This was a mistake.

His mother strode down the hallway in her dressing gown, looking him up and down.

“ _What_ are you _wearing?_ ” she hissed.

“It’s the latest Muggle fashion,” said Sirius, posing like a model. He grimaced internally. _She’s going to know. She’ll know I’m high._

“You are not leaving this house unless dressed like a—a—“

“A _what_ , Mother? A wizard? A respectable person?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Well, I can’t go out in robes, since your house is _surrounded by Muggles!_ ” said Sirius. “I’d draw attention to myself, and then the Muggles will rise up against us, or whatever you and Dad are always afraid of—“

“I will not be spoken to in this manner—“

“Oh, don’t tell me how to speak to you, you’re delusional, you and Dad—“

“How _dare_ you—“

“If you had your way, I’d end up marrying my first cousin! I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have any sisters, or you might decide my cousin’s blood just isn’t pure enough—“

“You come home spouting ridiculous nonsense, I have half a mind to send you to Durmstrang next term—“

“You’d never send me to Durmstrang, I wouldn’t be under your eye _nearly_ as much as you’d like—“

“See if I don’t! I’ll talk to your father, and you’ll never see Hogwarts again! Maybe I’ll teach you myself, and see how you like it!”

Sirius’ insides went cold. _James, Remus, Peter—no no no I can’t be trapped in this house forever, I can’t—_

“Excuse me,” he said, trying to keep his voice as cold as possible, half-shoving his way past his mother and half-jogging down the hall.

“ _What_ is that on your shoulder?” she screeched, and Sirius froze. _The tattoo…I’m such an idiot._

“It’s nothing,” he said, and started down the stairs, but—

“ _Petrificus Totalus!_ ” she screamed, and he froze, unable to move, his hand on the rail the only thing keeping him from toppling down the stairs head first.

She stalked toward him, and Sirius felt his heart fluttering like a bird inside his ribcage. She yanked back the sleeve on his arm, squinted at the tattoo and stabbed her wand at it, muttering about “Mudblood filth”.

Sirius’ shoulder burst into agony—it felt as though his skin was on fire, but he couldn’t move or scream, and the pain went on and he couldn’t get away---

“There,” said his mother in a satisfied tone, removing her wand, and the pain subsided somewhat. She waved her wand to release Sirius “I hope that teaches you—“

As soon as Sirius was released, a wave of power burst from him, knocking his mother down the stairs. Sirius stared after her, horrified.

“What did you _do?_ ” Sirius’ younger brother Regulus had come out of his room at the commotion, and he rushed down the stairs after their mother. Sirius hesitated, then sprinted to his room, grabbed a set of clothes and shoved them into a bag. Breathing fast, he looked around the room and snatched his wand from the bedside table, throwing that in his bag, too. Did he need anything else?

“She’ll be fine, by the way,” said Regulus, who had appeared in the doorway. “Father’s seeing to her.”

“You told him?” said Sirius, horrified. “You bast—“He grabbed the neck of Regulus’ shirt and shoved him against the wall. Then he saw Regulus’ scared expression and released him. It was hard to concentrate on what he was doing. _If I hadn’t taken those pills—I’m such an idiot!_

“Listen,” said Sirius, grabbing another change of clothes, and pulling on a leather jacket, “get back in your room and stay there. It won’t be safe out here.”

He pushed past Regulus and sprinted down the hall, hearing his father roar his name as he reached the top of the stairs. He leapt down six steps at a time and set out at a dead run for the front door.

He almost made it. He was skidding around the corner, arm’s length from the door, when a force shoved him sideways, slamming his side into a table. He curled on the floor, breath hissing through his teeth as his father advanced on him like a panther. His father slashed his wand to the side and Sirius gasped, feeling as though he’d been struck by a whip. He felt the hits again and again, and screamed when struck in the place he’d hit the table. He tried to crawl backward, but his father was advancing, striking as he came, so he curled up on the floor, his arm over his head—

“Father, is Mother all right?” said Regulus. Sirius and his father froze, looking back at Regulus on the first landing.

“She’ll be fine, son,” said Sirius’ father, tugging his robes back into their proper place. Regulus nodded at his father, then looked at Sirius and glanced toward the door. Sirius took the hint, scooped up his bag, and hurtled out the front door.

His father came after him, bellowing in rage, so he ripped open his bag and fished around in it for his wand, narrowly avoiding a curse his father sent his way. A shirt fell out of the bag, but he didn’t stop to retrieve it—at last his hand closed around the narrow strip of wood, and he whipped around, looking for a way out, his father hurtling toward him across the square—

Everything went black. He was being crushed from all sides, there was no air in his lungs, and he could see nothing in this blackness—

And it stopped. He stood in some kind of alleyway. Still convinced his father was coming after him, he spun around, slipped on a piece of trash, and fell over next to a Dumpster. The impact jostled what he was increasingly sure was a broken rib, and he lay still for a moment, grinding his teeth in agony. After the worst of the pain died down, he sat up gingerly.

He must have Apparated somehow, because he couldn’t see his parents’ house, and the alley was totally unfamiliar. He looked around for his wand and found it lying on some crisp packets. He reached for it and froze, staring at his hand.

All four fingers had been sheared off below the second knuckle, and little pulses of blood came from each of them – he’d Splinched himself. His heart sped up, and the blood came faster from his finger stumps. The worst part was that he’d hardly felt anything—looking back, it was a tap to his knuckles. It didn’t even hurt yet.

More so he wouldn’t have to look at it than anything, he reached under his jacket, twisting his T-shirt around his hand. _Not good not good not good—_ His brain was clouding with panic and he fought through it, trying to concentrate.

First step, try to figure out where he was. Left-handed, he grabbed his wand and stuck it in the pocket of his jacket, then slung his bag over his shoulder and staggered to his feet, panting with the pain in his side. He managed to get to the mouth of the alleyway and leaned against it, doing his best to stay upright.

He recognized this street—didn’t he? He squinted along it. Yes…this was where James and his parents lived. By some miracle he’d managed to convince his parents to let him stay with James for a couple weeks a few summers ago. Theirs was that house at the end of the lane, maybe a quarter mile away.

Okay, he just had to walk a quarter mile. Not too difficult.

He started walking, leaning against the houses along the way for support. Dawn was just breaking, and the few people outside seemed more inclined to speed past without looking at him than try to see what was wrong, which was fine by him.

How was the house so far away? He looked up again. He’d covered maybe half the distance, but his breathing was increasingly ragged, every breath felt like a knife in his side, and nausea was crawling up his throat, whether from the pain or the drugs, he didn’t know.

Why couldn’t he have Apparated closer?

He considered transforming, but he doubted a dog with missing toes and a broken rib would cover more ground than a human with missing fingers and a broken rib. Finally, after staggering across the street, he reached the Potters’ house and, clutching the green siding and bricks, managed to drag himself around to the back.

He looked up at the wall of windows, trying to remember where James slept. The wings of the house formed almost a courtyard around the back garden. The garden contained a fountain and a path around it, which tinkled in a relaxing fashion, and there was a stand of trees that the boys had worked on their homework under a few summers ago. It was a beautiful garden, and the back of the house was just as opulent – a veranda with carved stone pillars stretched along the back wall and continued up the sides.

Sirius, still clutching one of the pillars on the side of the faux-courtyard to stay upright, considered knocking on the door, but though James’ parents had always been polite, even kind, to him, he wasn’t sure they’d be pleased to be woken at dawn by their son’s hungover, bleeding friend. Instead he transformed into a dog and, ignoring the pain, gave the three quick barks that served as a signal of sorts. There was a pause, and then the window across from him opened, and James, obviously half-awake, with tousled hair, stuck his head out of the window while putting on his glasses.

“Sirius?” he said blearily. Sirius waved with his non-mutilated hand. A grin broke across James’ face. “Hang on, mate, I’ll be just a moment.”

The window slid shut, and Sirius, though barely able to stay upright, felt a strange reluctance to tell James what was wrong. It was _embarrassing_. _I’m going to actually die of bravado,_ he thought, and the idea was deeply amusing – he would have laughed if it didn’t hurt to breathe.

James burst out of the back door and started toward his friend, still in his pajamas. “How did you get here? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

Sirius tried to lean casually against the pillar. “Oh, you know. Apparated.” He did his best impression of a grin.

“You _bastard_! You knew I was going to try that this week!” His grin faded to a look of concern as he reached Sirius and looked into his face. “What’s wrong?”

Sirius took his damaged hand out from under his jacket. Blood still dripped from the stumps of his fingers. James gasped. “Oh, mate, what did you do?”

The world was wavering before Sirius’ eyes and he fought against unconsciousness. “I, er… Splinched myself. Not too bad for a first attempt, right? Hahaha…” He pitched forward and felt James catch him before he passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

James managed, holding Sirius’ arm across his shoulders in one hand and his belt in the other, to haul the unconscious Sirius up the veranda stairs and to the living room couch, despite Sirius being taller and outweighing him by probably fifty pounds. Sirius regained consciousness somewhat when James deposited him on the couch – he groaned and clutched his side, so the Splinching probably wasn’t his only injury.

“Sirius, listen,” James said, crouching next to the couch, “I’m going to take you to St. Mungo’s, all right?”

Sirius’ half-closed eyes snapped open and he grabbed James by the wrist with his good hand.

“Not St. Mungo’s. Parents might find me,” Sirius gasped. James was shocked to see fear in his eyes – Sirius never showed fear.

“Mate, I don’t think I can fix this,” James said, staring at Sirius’ hand. 

“Don’t care. Not St. Mungo’s. Promise me.” Sirius glared into James’ face, his breathing fast and shallow.

“Okay, I-I promise.” Sirius seemed satisfied; he released James and slumped back. James swore and tore down the stairs to his mother’s lab.

James’ mother was a Healer, she was constantly experimenting with new potions in the basement, and there was a closet full of overstock, clearly labeled. James ripped the door open and flicked on the light. Scanning the shelves, he seized the Skele-Gro and something to help with pain, but the flask of Blood-Replenishing potion was empty. He swore again, louder.

What could he do? The Blood-Replenishing potion was complex, requiring a lot of attention and at least an hour to make, and he wasn’t sure Sirius had that much time. He could close Sirius’ wounds, but it was impossible to re-grow fingers after the stumps healed. His parents were gone on some sort of conference – he hadn’t paid attention when they told him where. Remus? No, there was a full moon tonight. Remus wouldn’t be in a state to make any sort of potion. The best option otherwise, if he could convince her, was…

  
  


Lily Evans lay in her pajamas reading a textbook in her bedroom when she heard a scream from downstairs. Before she knew what she was doing, she was hurtling down the stairs with her wand in her hand. She heard her parents coming down the stairs after her as she ran to the living room, where Petunia stood frozen, staring at the fireplace, a smashed teacup at her feet. Lily followed her gaze and saw James Potter’s – _James Potter’s –_ head sitting in the fireplace, wreathed in green flames.

Lily strode past Petunia, avoiding the teacup shards, to shout, “JAMES POTTER GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF MY FIRE!”

“Evans, look—“ James started.

“Lily, what’s happening?” said her father. She looked around. Both parents stood, bewildered, behind Petunia.

“Mum, Dad, I’ll sort this out. Please, _please_ go back to bed. Tuney, please.”

“Evans—“ James began again, as Lily’s family shuffled out of the room.

“No, you listen, Potter. Asking me out at school is one thing, but this is my _home._ My _Muggle parents’ home_. How _dare_ you invade my privacy like this?” Her wand, still clenched in her hand shot sparks out of the end.

“I’m sorry, Evans, but—“

“Oh, you’re _sorry!_ Following me around everywhere, showing off—it’s never ever occurred to you that there could be a girl who DOESN’T LIKE YOU, has it? But this is just _completely—“_

”LILY, PLEASE, I NEED YOUR HELP!” James yelled, his voice cracking. Startled, Lily actually looked at his face for the first time. He looked terrified.

“Mine? Why?” said Lily, mystified.

“It’s Sirius. He’s—he’s hurt and I need to brew a potion, but I can’t do that an help him at the same time, and I know you don’t like him, but—“

“I don’t need to like someone to help them,” said Lily, annoyed.

“—if you do, I swear I’ll leave you alone and I won’t ask you out again—“

“Stop, James,” said Lily, “I’ll help. Do you have the ingredients? I only have basic things here.”

“You will?” said James, looking surprised and relieved. “Thank you, thank you—“

“James. Ingredients. Do you have them?” said Lily impatiently.

“Oh—yes. We should. My mum keeps her cabinet stocked.”

“Good.” She hesitated, looking at the fire. “How does this work?”

“You’ve never used Floo Powder before?” said James, disbelieving.

“Muggle parents, remember?” said Lily flatly.

“Whatever, just step into the fire—the fireplaces are already connected, it should take you right to us.”

Lily scribbled a note to her parents and left it on the kitchen table, then turned back to the flames, stepping cautiously into the fire – it was warm, but not hot, and it seemed to suck her in. Suddenly she was spinning very fast – her elbow grazed something and she tucked both of them in – and the spinning slowed, then stopped. She almost toppled out of the fire, but James steadied her before rushing back over to Sirius. Lily followed.

Sirius’ right hand dangled off the couch, a pool of blood forming on the carpet below it, as all four fingers were missing. His face was pale and his breathing was fast and shallow. His eyes darted between James and Lily, but he said nothing. James knelt by the couch, pulling out his wand.

“What happened to him?” Lily asked, bending 

“He said he Splinched himself—that explains his hand, but he might have broken ribs.” He took the collar of Sirius’ shirt and started to rip it down the front.

“Come on, mate, this is my favorite shirt,” Sirius protested weakly.

“Yeah, and it’s got your blood all over it. We can fix it later.” He ripped through the hem and spread the halves of the ruined shirt to reveal Sirius’ chest. Bruises like whip weals were darkening all along his left side, and a larger bruise blooming on his right looked like the broken ribs James had suspected. There was also an angry red patch of skin on Sirius’ shoulder, in more or less the design of the tattoo he’d told James he was going to get. Lily gasped.

“Mate, what _happened_?” James said, aghast. Sirius shook his head, looking away.

“What do you need me to do?” Lily asked.

“Right,” said James, running a hand through his hair in an effort to think. “I need a Blood-Replenishing Potion that works with these two,” he said, handing her the Skele-Gro and the flask of pain potion.

Lily read the labels on both, calculating. “You can’t give him both of these, but I’ll get you a pain potion you can give him. That will be twenty minutes or so, and the Blood-Replenishing Potion I can do in forty-five.

“I thought it took at least an hour,” said James, measuring out a dose of Skele-Gro.

“I know some shortcuts,” she said, tying back her hair with a band she had around her wrist. “Where is everything?”

“Downstairs,” said James, pointing. “Sorry, mate,” he said, turning back to Sirius, “This might hurt a bit.”

Lily rushed down the stairs and hunted for a light switch for a moment. “Right,” she muttered to herself, “Wizards,” and turned on the lights with a flick of her wand.

Four sparkling cauldrons stood on two free-standing counters on the other side of the room, with a shelf of well-used medical potion books behind them. Lily poked fires into life under two of them, and went to grab the ingredients she needed from a cupboard. She opened the door, expecting to see something the size of a pantry, instead found a room the size of her bedroom, stocked with ingredients from floor to ceiling with shelves all around the walls and four vertical columns in the middle. Carefully labeled signs hung from the ceiling, so she grabbed the basket that lay near the door and looked for what she needed.

  
  


James, upstairs, was worried. He knew the theory of what he was about to do – his mother had been teaching him Healing for years, probably hoping he’d become a Healer as well. He’d practiced on his own minor cuts and scrapes and his mother’s, but no one had conveniently lost fingers for him to practice regrowing.

The idea was, he knew, that the Skelegro would allow the bones to grow back, and he just had to replenish the flesh around them as they did, similar to mending a cut or scrape…but much more complicated. He looked up. Sirius was watching him.

“You’ll be fine, mate,” he said, doing his best to sound convincing. Sirius nodded dully, then winced. The Skele-Gro was starting to work. James gently raised Sirius’ mangled hand to look, and there were indeed fragments of bone poking out through the wounds. Setting aside his squeamish reaction, James seized his wand and started to trace around each of the fingers, adding bits of flesh to each of them.

Twenty minutes later, Lily came up the stairs holding a flask of potion. She measured it into the cup James had used for the Skele-Gro. “Here, James,” she said, holding out the cup. James didn’t react; his attention was so focused on Sirius’ hand that she was afraid to break his concentration. She turned to Sirius instead, who was staring at the ceiling, jaw clenched, his breathing ragged.

Much as she hated Sirius for his casual cruelty to Severus and his treatment of girls in general, she couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for him in this state. She knelt next to the couch.

“Sirius, this will help you feel better,” she said, helping him sit up to drink it and trying to keep his hand steady for James. He sighed in relief and slumped back, his eyes closed. Lily nodded in satisfaction and rushed back downstairs to tend the other potion.

Another twenty minutes later Lily bottled and corked the Blood-Replenishing potion and filled another flask with the pain potion she’d invented. She’d told Slughorn it was for headaches, but she’d actually developed it for menstrual cramps, since the other minor pain potions she’d tried did nothing for her, and Madam Pompfrey refused to give out more powerful potions once a month, as they could be habit-forming. She smirked at the thought of Sirius finding out she was basically giving him Wizard Midol, but it was the best pain potion she knew that wouldn’t interfere with Skele-Gro’s effects.

She took the potions upstairs. James was still kneeling at the edge of the couch, tending to Sirius’ hand. Sweat was beading on his brow as he held his concentration. Sirius was looking more comfortable than last time, but still pale and drained. Lily helped him sit up once more to drink the Blood-Replenishing potion and some color came back into his face. He smiled at her, not his usual smirking grin, but a genuine, if weak, smile.

“Thanks, Evans,” he said.

“No problem...Black,” she said. They both glanced down at Sirius’ hand. James was making progress - Sirius’ second knuckles had reappeared. But after a moment they both looked away, feeling rather queasy. Sirius winced again - clearly the potion wasn’t taking away his pain entirely.

“Would you rather be sleeping through this?” Lily asked. “I mean, I can make you something so you can sleep.”

“Nah, it’s okay,” said Sirius. “Do you want to go home? You could probably use the fireplace.”

Lily glanced over at it. The green flames had gone, and she wasn’t sure how to make them come back. “No,” she said, “I’d better stay here, so James doesn’t have to freak out my entire family if he needs me again.”

Sirius laughed, then grimaced, clutching his side. “They’re Muggles, right? Your family? So they’d probably never seen Floo Powder used before.”

“No.” _And neither had I._

“Did they scream?” said Sirius, a trace of his usual smirk playing around his mouth.

“No. I mean, my sister did,” said Lily. _And because of that she probably won’t speak to me until the summer._

Sirius flushed a little pink, seeming to realize he’d touched on a sore subject. “So--So are they nice? Your family?”

Lily shrugged. “I guess. They don’t understand a lot of Wizarding stuff, but they’re trying. My parents-- they love me, but they’re frustrating, but they want what’s best for me, but they don’t understand. You know, parents.”

Sirius looked away, staring into the middle distance. “Yeah…” he said softly. A connection formed in Lily’s mind about a likely source of Sirius’s injuries, and she flushed as well.

There was an awkward silence.

“Y’know, Remus’s mum is a Muggle, too,” said Sirius.

“I think I knew that--she’s sick a lot, isn’t she?”

Sirius looked confused for a second, then his eyes widened and he looked...nervous? “Oh--oh yeah. She is.”

Lily opened her mouth to ask another question, but James flapped his hand at them. “Stop talking. Concentrating.”

Lily closed her mouth and nodded awkwardly for a moment, before wandering away to explore the rest of the house.

  
  


Sirius woke up to see James asleep on the floor and Lily tapping the bricks of the fireplace with her wand. He looked at his right hand and flexed his fingers. Everything seemed to be working properly, and he shook his head in amazement. He also noticed that he was still in his bloody, ripped-in-half shirt, so he got up and fetched another from his bag, which James had dropped by the front door.

“What are you doing?” he asked Lily, who jumped and turned around.

“Nothing. I mean, I was trying to--to get back to my house,” she said, blushing. Sirius gingerly stripped off his jacket and ruined shirt and pulled the other shirt over his head.

“You mean with Floo Powder? You’ve never used it before?” He walked over to the fireplace.

“Yes, yes, I have Muggle parents, so I don’t know anything” she said wearily.

“What?” he said, baffled. “No, you’re amazing. The only reason James studies as hard as he does is because he’s trying to keep up with you. I suppose you want to leave before he wakes up?”

“That was the plan.”

“Okay, here,” said Sirius, and he took a pinch of black powder from the silver pot on the mantelpiece and tossed it into the fireplace. Green flames leaped up and Lily jumped back, startled. She stared at the fire. “How do I tell it where to go?”

“Just step inside and say your address.”

“Oh. That seems simple enough.”

There was an awkward pause.

“Well...thanks. Really, thanks for everything,” Sirius said, rubbing the back of his head with his newly repaired hand.

Lily smiled, and as she stepped toward the fire, James sat up abruptly. He looked around, his hair even messier than usual, and seemed confused to find himself lying on the floor.

“Hey, mate, over here,” said Sirius, and as James looked over at the two of them he seemed to remember what was happening and jumped to his feet.

“You look terrible,” said Sirius as he came over to them.

James glanced at Lily and blushed. “You don’t look so hot yourself,” he retorted.

“Well,” said Lily, clapping her hands, “I’d better be off, then.”

“Right, of course.” said James. He did look exhausted, but Lily liked him better now, somehow. It was as though the cocky veneer he usually wore had been stripped away. “Er, thanks for everything.” He met her eyes, then blushed and glanced away.

Lily looked at the pair of them and sighed. Somehow, between James’ concerned glances at Sirius and Sirius looking anywhere but at James, she knew that they weren’t going to talk about what had happened. She turned away from the dying green flames.

She took Sirius by the elbow and towed him back to the couch, then sat down and patted the seat beside her. Sirius sat down slowly, looking confused. James leaned against the mantel with a hand over his mouth.

“Sirius, can you tell me what happened?” Lily said softly.

Sirius shook his head, a smile playing around his lips. “I Splinched myself. I told James.”

Lily stared at him, waiting.

“What, this?” he said, gesturing to his torso. “This is nothing--this happens all the time at home.”

He heard James gasp and tried to backpedal, “I mean, not all the time--and this is definitely the worst--”

Lily still said nothing, and Sirius grew frustrated.

“What, Evans, you--you want me to say they stopped loving me as soon as I was sorted into Gryffindor? That my mother is, at this moment, literally burning my name off the family tree?” Sirius lurched to his feet and started pacing back and forth. “What am I supposed to do now? I’m sixteen, I have three sets of Muggle clothes, a backpack, and a wand - I left my trunk, my books, my robes-- I don’t have anywhere to sleep--”

“Mate, you’re staying here,” said James. “It’s going to be okay - I’m sure my parents can get you some new things.”

“What?” said Sirius, staring at James. “Why would your parents--? It’s not like I’m--I’m family--”

“Yes, you are,” said James. He went to Sirius and put a hand on his shoulder. “To me, you are.”

“Listen, Sirius,” said Lily. “I don’t know exactly what you went through, but I know the way your parents treated you wasn’t normal. It sounds messed up, and I’m sorry.”

Sirius looked away, blinking back tears.

“Well,” said Lily, standing, “I should probably go explain to my parents why there was a talking head in our fireplace this morning.”

“Yeah, of course,” said James.

This time Lily strode confidently to the fireplace, took a handful of the powder, and threw it in the fire. Then yelped and jumped back again when the fire blazed out farther than she expected.

“Er,” said James, hurrying over to her. “You don’t need that much, just a pinch is fine.”

“Right,” said Lily. She paused for a moment, then said, “See you both at school then.”

“Wait, Evans,” said Sirius. She turned and found herself swept up in a hug...by Sirius Black. She shook her head in amazement and hugged him back. “Thanks,” he said tightly, and released her, clearing his throat.

“Sirius, your family may be...less than ideal, but James managed to convince _me_ to come help you out, and you know how hard that must have been,” Lily said. Sirius chuckled wetly. “He’s a good friend,” she said, looking over at James, whose face was now red as a tomato.

“See you,” said Lily, stepping toward the fire once more.

At this moment, the door opened and James’ parents walked in.

Lily, James, and Sirius watched as Euphemia and Fleamont Potter froze in the doorway, their eyes taking in the three teenagers, two of them in pajamas, standing next to the fire, the bloodstains on the floor, and the empty potion flasks lying scattered around the couch.

“Well,” said Euphemia at last, “I see we’ve missed a great deal of excitement.”


End file.
